Review: Fibonacci ‘The Londoner’ Archtop Guitar

Archtop guitar manufacturer Fibonacci recently launched The Londoner, born out of a collaboration with British jazz guitarist Nigel Price. Boasting a Venetian cutaway body in bister sunburst nitrocellulose, it features a hand-carved solid flame maple top and three-ply laminate flame maple back and rims. Its ‘thin line’ profile offers 2” rims, while the lower bout is a sizeable 17”. The flame maple set-neck is a ‘one piece’ neck/headstock design constructed in three sections, with the centre section rotated to add strength.

Atop the neck is an ebony fingerboard with 22 stainless-steel medium jumbo frets and mother-of-pearl block position markers. The bone nut sports a generous 44.5mm width, while above (on the face of the headstock), the gold foil Fibonacci name and Price’s signature are tastefully displayed. The encased SG310 gold Gotoh tuners have solid turned ebony buttons.

All the bindings are in solid maple, including those around the ‘f’ holes, while the pickguard and floating bridge are in solid ebony. The tone and volume controls are, for some reason, turned in African blackwood, while the floating bridge has a fully adjustable tune-o-matic saddle section with strings retained in a caste gold ‘lyre’ tailpiece. A Jon Dickinson ‘Big Ben’ PAF floating humbucker and a ‘series to parallel’ switch complete the picture.

In practice, the 2” rims make this guitar very comfortable to play. And the slim, shallow C-profile neck just adds to the pleasure: it’s smooth and fast with the upper reaches easily accessible. The slightly wider than normal (for a jazz guitar) nut width, makes fingering at the head of the instrument that much easier (Steady on! – Ed) – particularly for those with oversize digits!

Naturally bright, due to the all-maple construction, The Londoner has excellent note separation, while the tone is crystal clear and clean, particularly at the bottom, where there is no muddiness whatsoever. A full five stars go to Jon Dickinson for his ‘Big Ben’ floating PAF humbucker pickup, which really helps bring out and enhance the guitar’s natural acoustic qualities, while also adding sonic depth and rich tonal character. Interestingly, there is more of an ‘electric’ sound coming out of this pickup than you would normally expect to hear from a ‘floater’. We suspect that this is down to the pickup windings being in both series and parallel, but also perhaps due to some judicious ‘overwinding’. Whatever the intricacies of the wiring, the Big Ben makes this instrument sing!

This archtop can undoubtedly compete with the best of them. At £3,499 it may not be the cheapest, but you’ll be hard pressed to find an instrument that has both the musicality and character of The Londoner.

Find out more here: www.fibonacciguitars.com